Reviews

Hold Fast by Marshall Highet, Bird Jones

misterintensity's review against another edition

3.0

Italian cousins Joseph Carlo and Suchet attempts to alleviate boredom somehow lead them to serve in the British Navy. While there they learn how brutal life on the seas really is. As they face the danger of the seas they have decide what type of men they will become. This is a historical biography based on the time Joseph Carlo Mauran -- who commanded the vessel Spitfire during the Revolutionary War -- served the British Navy in his early teens. This is a very male heavy novel with only one female character, his cousin Madalena in the entire novel with most of the other characters being sailors. Hold Fast straddles the line between middle grade and young adult fiction, so while it doesn't shy away from encounters with the death, destruction, and disease sailors encounter it does shy away from the bawdier aspects of a sailor's life, meaning while there's some salty language there's no real sexual innuendo. Highet does an excellent job depicting the dangers of life in the British Navy. This book is recommended for collections that are looking for historical fiction which is a good transition between middle grade and young adult fiction.